Explanation:
What makes comet tails so colorful?
This
photograph of Comet Hyakutake was
taken the night of April 18th and highlights different
components of the tail. The gold
and red tail features are
dust, made predominately of little bits of rock
and carbon. The dust tail shines by reflecting sunlight. Extending past
the dust tail is the comet's ion tail,
shown here glowing in blue. The ion tail is composed mostly of ions of
water, carbon monoxide, and
cyanogen.
The ion tail glows by emitting light
when elections re-combine with electrically charged ions to make uncharged
molecules. The photograph was taken just north of Kansas City, Missouri,
USA.